Color Definitions:

Valta - Common translation: White - a bright white with just the slightest bluish undertone that is only really visible when placed in contrast to more yellow-based shades such as cream. Originally from the concentrated sap of the valta weed, a pale, stubby plant with thick, waxy leaves that grew in runners and was very invasive.

Vruna - Common translation: Brown - a deep, rich, slightly yellow-tinged brown. Originally from the boiled bark of the vruna tree, a small, dark, almost shrub-like tree with rounded yellowish leaves.

Relna - Common translation: Black - pitch-black with a slight greenish undertone in bright lighting. Originally from the crushed petals of the relna flower, a smallish trumpet-shaped blossom that grew low to the ground in clumps of two to five, and quickly spread in shady areas as ground cover.

Zila - Common translation: Blue - a dazzlingly bright shade of blue too rich to be turquoise, but with a somewhat similar balance of green tones. Originally from the juice of berries from the zila bush, a dense woody plant with thin, spiked leaves and extremely abundant, plump teardrop-shaped berries of the same shade.

Zala - Common translation: Green - a slightly gold-tinged medium green shade. Originally from the masticated leaves of the zala vine, a hardy plant with wide, serrated teardrop-shaped leaves that grew almost everywhere in the Rakash lands in the west.

Forfra - Common translation: Purple - a slightly reddish-purple just a touch brighter than aubergine. Originally from the pulp of forfra grass, a tall thin prairie grass of the same shade.


Lore:
Before Lyras ruined the lands to the west of the Great Barrier, many plant species unique to the region flourished in the fertile soil, creating a habitat that was in many ways rather unique compared to the rest of Kermoria. Some of these plants were in fact so plentiful in the areas settled by the Rakash that the particular shades of dye produced from them were seen as the baseline standard for their respective colors amongst the Rakash people, and the names for the plants themselves became used for these colors as well.

With the devastation wrought by the intense Necromantic corruption of the West, however, these once ubiquitous plants are now extinct (or at least presumed so, as none have yet been found even by those who have recently traveled beyond the Barrier once more). The Rakash people feel a great sense of loss due to this, as they had not even considered that these plants which had been so common in their world before would not be present in the eastern lands to which they fled. These hues have become known as ‘The Lost Colors’, and are now considered almost sacred by the Rakash.

The only known modern source of these colors is the owners of the shop Visfarej Cehs, located in the village of Siksraja. Their special dyes are crafted from a process that is unique to a few members of the family. They consider their ability to recreate the Lost Colors a gift from Enelne, as though they have attempted to teach the process to others in their pack before, none outside of the family have ever managed to successfully recreate the hues. Due to the exhausting nature of the process, which seems to at least involve extensive prayer and fasting along with the mechanical aspects of dye creation, the family does not export their dyes for use outside of Siksraja.


OOC Stuff:
This is one area that is a more extensive retcon as much as it is a clarification of and expansion upon previous releases. Along with bringing everything up to current design standards, I wanted to give each Rakash color more of a description so people can better understand how they are different, while still allowing the IG language dictionaries to remain as-is and not just stamping out a unique aspect of the Rakash that has been around for quite some time now.


Practical Changes:
* From here out, no new items will be made using the above color words outside of Siksraja-based shops, and almost exclusively Visfarej Cehs itself. Possible exceptions in the future may happen for auction/quest items, but it’s best to consider this a firm rule at this time.

* If you want an alteration using any of these color words, you will need to provide materials that are already that color. It will not be possible to transfer the color to a different material during the alteration, so whatever material you provide is what will have to be used. For instance, if you’re using the previously released relna rugursora from Visfarej Cehs as your color base item, whatever parts of your altered item that you’re wanting to be the color ‘relna’ would have to be made of canvas, since that is what that rugursora is made of. You wouldn’t be able to take that rugursora and have the alterer make you relna colored enamel on your pendant.

* These color words are extremely unlikely be used in any new world building, even around Siksraja, to match with current design standards that encourage greater ease of reading/understanding by limiting or eliminating the use of IG racial language adjectives.

* Any Rakash language color words that are not in the above list are no longer considered to be distinct enough to be used in untranslated form for items (or world building). We won’t be changing any items players currently own, but we also won’t be making new items using those words or allowing them for use in alterations. Yes, this does mean that even if the item you’re wanting to have altered is currently using that word, it would need to be changed to a standard English color word or have the color reference removed entirely, or that item will not be able to be altered. All existing shop items using them are being removed or otherwise updated, and world objects using them will be updated along the way as time permits.

-Persida



This message was originally posted in The Races of DragonRealms, Rakash - Rakash Pack. To discuss the above, follow the link below.

http://forums.play.net/forums/13/115/791/view/1375